The Calculating Stars

 A meteorite crashes close to Washington DC in the early 1950's and the USA's east coast is devastated. The only long term solution for humanity ( because of the coming Climate Change due to the sudden hyper-warming of the planet ) is to go to space. An international coalition is set to go to space. We follow a computer ( a female mathematician ) who used to be a pilot, as she pushes for the idea of sending women to space, especially since the plan is to colonize planets to survive. 

 It's a really good book. The times are difficult and a lot of social issues are shown -- not only the position of women within societies. The characters are also deep, in the sense that no character flawless. It's also an entertaining book.